Various forms of storage systems are used today. These forms include direct attached storage (DAS) network attached storage (NAS) systems, storage area networks (SANs), and others. Network storage systems are commonly used for a variety of purposes, such as providing multiple users with access to shared data, backing up data and others.
A storage system typically includes at least one computing system executing a storage operating system for storing and retrieving data on behalf of one or more client computing systems (“clients”). The storage operating system stores and manages shared data containers in a set of mass storage devices.
Storage systems may include a plurality of nodes operating within a cluster for processing client requests. The nodes may have a plurality of ports that are used for communication with the cluster and outside the cluster. Clients may use more than one port within a broadcast domain to communicate within the cluster and may need to know what ports are reachable at any given time. Continuous efforts are being made for efficiently managing port reachability and reporting it to clients.